Unusual Pets?

We have a dog (golden retriever) and a cockatiel (actually the bird is my daughter's but she's in grad school and I get to take care of it so it counts any way). Over the years we've had hamsters and a guinea pig (long haired and very cute) and parakeets and a chameleon (sp?) and, when my daughter brought them home from college, a visiting iguana and rat.

I have cats and fish but have had numerous things myself like salamanders and birds and turtles and dogs and hamsters and all sorts of the regular types of pets, and have enjoyed each and everyone.
My cousin had a prarie dog, that was a bit different.
My friend has a ferret, whos adorable.

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JoanneDorel

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Tue 12 Nov, 2002 09:02 pm

One dog, Bean; a cat, Carlotta; three fish, and one of those bottom feeder scum eating types that we call nipper.

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Matrix500

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Wed 20 Nov, 2002 09:09 pm

Right now, we just have a dog and some fish, but have had cats and several Guinea pigs...

I have crows that come to visit me every day expecting to be fed, etc., and I always oblige them.

Oh, I didn't think about counting the visitors. We have lots and lots of those. Many different kinds of birds come to our feeders over the course of the year -- including a brown osprey once, and lately some monk parakeets. And then there are the squirrels who join in the fun at the bird feeder -- the are nice enough to dump the contents of one of the feeders each morning which allows the little ground feeders easy access (and the squirrels only take the sunflower seeds and leave the rest for the birds so I don't mind at all).

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Peace and Love

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Wed 20 Nov, 2002 09:35 pm

When my daughter was young, about 5th or 6th grade, she had a pet rat. The rat would ride on Rosanne's shoulder. One day, Rosanne took her rat to school, for 'show-and-tell'. When I picked her up at the end of the day, she needed to get her soccer shirt from the PE building. Mr. Peterson, who was Mr. Macho PE Teacher, was sitting at his desk. He was looking down at some papers. Rosanne set her rat on the desk, just for a moment. When Mr. Peterson saw the rat, he jumped a mile, flattened himself into a corner, and said, in a really shakey voice, "Get That Rat Out Of Here!". LOL... Rosanne and I were laughing all the way home!!

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bandylu2

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Wed 20 Nov, 2002 09:38 pm

Mr. Peterson's reaction to the rat is much like my husband's reaction to our daughter's rat. All I can say is it's a good thing the rat only came home for holidays (and was forced to stay in daughter's room).

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Matrix500

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Wed 20 Nov, 2002 09:45 pm

We have lots of squirrels and lots of wild birds who come to get goodies from us, but the crows and I go way back.

I could handle having a pet rat, but if anyone ever brought home one of those spiders they sell at exotic pet stores, one of us would have to leave...and, it wouldn't be me!

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SeattleFrettchen

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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 03:28 pm

This is a really old thread, but I had 3 ferrets and various cats while growing up. Loved them dearly. Anyone else have ferrets?

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cjhsa

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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 03:32 pm

We have a cockatiel who has decided that I am her mate. Kinda weird.

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Lady J

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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 05:10 pm

I think our house was quite the zoo as my kids were growing up....we had dogs and cats and cockatiels and parakeets and aquatic turtles and lizards and the most fun of course, were the snakes I think our count topped 40 of those at one single point. We had various corn snakes, rat snakes, gopher snakes, garter snakes, pine snakes, king snakes, Ball Pythons, red tail boas (19 of them born one morning on the 4th of July!), a 13 foot Burmese python, Amazon tree boas (nasty attitude in those little fanged beasts!). a Jampea Islands Dwarf Reticulated Python and about 8 California rattlers, from the Northern Pacific rattlers to the Desert rattlers including the Western Diamondback.

My mom didn't visit much during those times. I often wondered why. In retrospect I have a pretty good idea now!

Truly mom....I wasn't crazy, it was just a very fun phase!

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Lady J

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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 05:13 pm

cjhsa wrote:

We have a cockatiel who has decided that I am her mate. Kinda weird.

That's not weird at all, cj! Very, very common with cockatiels. They have a huge bonding instinct and you are obviously this one's very favorite. Consider it a compliment.

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cjhsa

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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 05:21 pm

Well, I do my best to scare her to death, so I don't know why she likes me. One day I was getting dressed and the bird was there, and of course she started chewing on something important. I had my belt in my hand and used it to gently shoe her away from the paperwork, and she went absolutely apeshit.

I'm guessing she mistook the belt for a snake, best guess.

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Lady J

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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 05:42 pm

Hehehe....my guess on that one is she was trying to garner any attention she could from you by nibbling on your paperwork. When you shoo'ed her away, that flat out pissed her off. As smart as she is, she would never take out her frustrations on you, she loves you too much. But that belt was a great target to let out her frustrations on.

Just my thoughts.

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cjhsa

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Thu 24 Feb, 2005 05:45 pm

This was more than frustration. It was more like poking a chimpanzee with a branding iron.

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Lady J

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Sat 26 Feb, 2005 02:11 am

Better the belt than you, my friend!

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Jackofalltrades

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Fri 11 Mar, 2005 12:59 am

Our menagerie
As a homeschool family it seems every time we start a unit study on an animal we end up getting one. Currently we have 2 dogs, several cats, a parakeet that pulls the cats fur when they sleep on his cage, a king snake, and a gopher. My son was flooding a gopher hole and a baby gopher came out. Instead of letting me flatten it with a shovel, the kids and DW decided to keep it. My wife holds it in her lap and pets it, however it just tolerates this. We keep it in an aquarium and it loves to push around the litter. It needs stuff to chew on as it is a rodent and it's teeth keep growing, but the most amazing thing is that we give it no water. It gets it's liquid needs met with fresh fruit like pears and apples.
As far as wild visitors because we live in the country we get racoons, skunks,possum, squirrels, an ocassional deer and bobcat, and once in a great while a coyote and once in an even greater while a puma (mountain lion). Birds are too numerous to mention,but we have a couple of red tail hawk families and a few barn and hoot owls.
Last year my son and the boy next door found a Texas red slider turtle about 8 inches across. It had belonged to the people who had rented this house several years earlier and had escaped. We eventually released it in the local pond. This is why we love the country.